'Ultimate soccer mom' gets jail for stealing $75,000

A Montgomery County woman known to friends as "the ultimate soccer mom" is headed to jail for stealing more than $75,000 from the youth soccer league for which her son once played, reporter Carl Hessler Jr. writes in today's edition of The Pottstown Mercury.

From Hessler's story:

Maryann Grant, 38, of Wellington Way, Red Hill, was sentenced in Montgomery County Court on Thursday to 9-to-23-months in the county jail, to be followed by five years' probation, in connection with thefts that occurred during her four-year tenure as treasurer of the nonprofit Valley Soccer Club, which serves the Upper Perkiomen Valley region.

"These types of offenses, we call them white collar crimes, they are often committed by people who are very involved in the community," said Judge Thomas P. Rogers, referring to testimony from Grant's friends and relatives that she was a dedicated community volunteer. "But these are offenses that violate the public trust. It cannot be tolerated."

Desperate circumstances lead some people to steal, but this woman apparently used some of the money to pay for a trip to Disney World.

And despite overwhelming evidence that she stole the money, her husband and family told the judge she was railroaded by police and the judicial system. I wasn't in the courtroom, but if you're the treasurer of an organization and $75,000 of the group's funds is missing, and you're the only person who has access to the account, you're responsible for it. It's that simple.

Read the full story at the newspaper's Web site.